I really like to read. No. Really. Reading is kind of an obsession for me. To illustrate the point, when I was a little kid I used to read while using the bathroom. Yes, books, but also air freshener, soap boxes, the engravings on faucets. If it was within my sight line, I was reading it (#nerdpride). So I guess itâs not too surprising--although itâs still a bit surreal--that as an adult I would somehow manage to actually make a living reading. As a voice actor that is exactly what I do. In 2013 I was lucky enough to read some radio ads, several phone messages, 9 slide shows, 2 safety videos, and 25 audiobooks. Even though they are the most involved, audiobooks (the steamy ones in particular) are my favorites to do. After much deliberation I picked the very last and very first audiobooks I narrated in 2013, and one hot listen from fellow narrator Christa G. Lewis to share with you.

1. Exit Strategy by L.V. Lewis, narrated by Marie Hélène

Why I loved it: Much like in season 2 for Olivia Pope, book 2 in the 50 Shades of Jungle Fever let us see more of the heroineâs vulnerability. Donât let the title deter youâitâs much more than an homage to E.L. Jamesâ work and really worth a listen/read for fans and non-fans alike.

2. Kismetâs Kiss by Cate Rowan, narrated by Marie Hélène

Why I loved it: The King and I meets Marion Zimmer Bradley. Whatâs not to like? I thoroughly enjoyed the fantasy elements of the story, but what I loved most was how real and complicated Sultan Kuramosâ life was amidst the chaos of politics, plural marriage, and a plague.

3. Her Fake Romance by Donna Fasano, narrated by Christa G. Lewis

Why I loved it: The story is really sweet and well-done, and Christaâs voice is smooth and gorgeous. âNough said.

So now comes the fun part. Click below to check out what other listeners have enjoyed this year and keep scrolling to enter for a chance to win a 6 month membership to Audible below.

Kissing the Man Next Door definitely surprised me. I went into it expecting it to be sweet and mildâit is literally a boy meets girl next door storyâand it is sweet. The main characters are all kind, unpretentious, and without ulterior motives. That is good and definitely what youâd expect from a mainstream romance. What I didnât expect was how well-written (and incredibly steamy) the love scenes would be once our couple connected. They are definitely hot-cha-cha!

If youâre into it, Kissing the Man Next Door is now available on Amazon, iTunes, and Audible.com. For a sneak listen, check out my SoundCloud page. https://soundcloud.com/marie-h-l-ne-1

On of my favorite authors to work with, L.V. Lewis, revisits the world of Keisha Beale and Tristan White from her Fifty Shades of Jungle Fever in the soon to be released Exit Strategy!

Ex·it Strat·e·gy (noun) 1. A preplanned means of extricating oneself from a situation that is likely to become difficult or unpleasant. 2. The method by which a venture capitalist or business owner intends to get out of an investment that he or she has made in the past.

Will Keisha and Tristan exercise their elaborate EXIT STRATEGY and end their unorthodox arrangement?

Assailed by demons she thought she had conquered, Keisha Beale has uttered the words to end her tumultuous relationship with Tristan White. Separated, they grapple for a time with their personal demons. However, when their lives apart become unbearable, a credible threat brings them back together prematurely.

As they seek to discover who is responsible for the threats, several seemingly unrelated incidents throw them into a tailspin. Will Keishaâs youthful indiscretions or Tristanâs un-reconciled feelings for a former sub derail their tenuous arrangement?

In the meantime, trouble in Nathan and Jadaâs paradise send dramatic ripples that hint of future difficulties in the idyllic pairing.

Nothing Venturedâ¦

Tristan uses his vast wealth and connections to correct a gross miscarriage of justice, while Keisha makes herself utterly vulnerable to Tristan and fears he has chosen to exercise his own exit strategy.

â¦Nothing Gained!

Will this be the end of the indecent arrangement that became a fairy tale? Or will Keisha and Tristan reveal the trauma from their pasts so they may heal and completely embrace their relationship?

Sensual, suspenseful, and still infused with the riotous levity of Triple-G and Fairy Hoochie Mama, the Ghetto Girl Romance Quadrilogy departs from full parody with a distinctive take on love, loyalty, sacrifice, redemption, and acceptance.

L. V. Lewis doesn't have the financial means of Tristan White, but she wouldn't want readers to go away from this cover reveal empty handed, so she's giving all viewers the chance to win one of the following three prizes (1) Kindle (2) $50 gift card (from either Amazon, B&N, or iTunes), 3) Signed Personalized copies of Fifty Shades of Jungle Fever and Exit Strategy. Here's the Rafflecopter link if you'd like to enter to win: http://bit.ly/YZyTXA.

Sometimes itâs easy to forget about the author. This is particularly true for those of us who are bookish. I know. That seems counter-intuitive. But hear me out. Those of us who think of books as friends, who canât wait to fall into this alternate reality and lose ourselves (or discover ourselves) in what we find there are often so good at it that we forget authors exist as real flesh and blood people with lives and families and feelings all their own. The name printed boldly on the cover is a human, not a mere collection of words on a page.

Of course I always knew this was true on an intellectual level, but feeling it is true is something entirely different. That didnât happen until I began to work with authors much more closely in the deeply personal process of creating an audiobook.

"Deeply personal?" you might ask. "Thatâs a bit of an exaggeration, isnât it?" Yes. For some. But stop to think about it for a moment. As an author, you likely have spent hundreds, perhaps thousands of hours living with your story in your head. The characters speak, they act, they move, they thinkâbut all in the authorâs head. They have been living in there. Growing in there. Becoming who they are and quietly changing the author in the process. Quietly being the key. Many authors have never heard their prose spoken aloud before putting it in the hands of a narrator. It can be scary. A bit like sending your first born off to kindergarten. Will she be understood? Will she be mistreated? Will she grow?

Some hover like overprotective parents, wanting to be involved in the development of every character voice, every pause, every breath. Others are more hands-off but no less caring, delivering their prize into the narratorâs hands and holding their breath until the finish. But whatever the approach, it always reveals a bit of the author's personality. It peals back a bit of the protective layer to reveal the human underneath. Seeing the artist so exposed has forever changed me as a reader. Hopefully for the better.

The journey from print to voice can be unnerving. Each author chooses her best path, and I smooth the road where I can.

Every morning I disentangle myself from my husband slowly. Trying not to wake him, carefully sliding his arm from its resting place in the curve of my hip, slipping my leg from between his. He hates that I ease out of bed before he wakes. For him it feels like Iâve slipped off to the arms of another lover, and in a way I have.

Treading down the dark hall with delicate steps, I make my way toward the soft light spilling from my little recording studio. Itâs all set up for me, left just the way I like it, ready for me to curl up on the ottoman and slide my headphones into place. I click the microphone on and fall into a fantasy world where a young woman loses control of herself in the arms of a god. Every kiss, every caress is made all the more real by the quiet of the morning and the remnants of my own dreams. I can feel the words even as I say them. They rouse me, ready me for whatever else the day will hold. They are my coffee. Then I head back to my husbandâs arms for a little bit of sugar.

New Orleans is beautiful. Its lushness, even in the dead of winter, can inspire romance in the coldest heart. Love and exoticism permeate the air, invading the soul with every languid breath. Is there any wonder, then, that someone like meâborn and raised on city streets overgrown with plantains and old world charmâwould find herself mesmerized by the sensual? For me there was nothing at all unusual about reading Anne Riceâs naughtier bits on the steps of an old convent, carefully keeping the pleats of my plaid skirt tucked into the folds of my knees. I was hiding, you see. Not from the world, but from my mother. You have to do that when you're 12. And the fact that I kept my sensual sojourns secret from her only added to their pleasure.

Now that I am older I still lust after stories of romance and erotic exploration, and I still think that a bit of secrecy can heighten their appeal. However, I have learned that there is more than one way to keep a secret. There are secrets from lovers, secrets between lovers, and secrets from everyone else. One of the things that I love about narrating erotic fiction is that it is like whispering a secret into the microphone. A secret that you can share if you wish. Or, if you choose, you can keep it all to yourself. After all, once you slip your earbuds in, no one knows what youâre listening to except you.